“Until just a few years ago we doctors believed that the brain stopped making new neural connections ? meaning that your memory began to get irreversibly worse ? when the body stopped developing usually in your early 20s. And we knew that like any other body part neurons weaken as we age. Loss of brain function due to neural breakdown was assumed to be a normal unavoidable part of aging.
It turns out we were wrong. In the past few years it has become clear that you can in fact make new neurons starting in your 20s and continuing well into old age. You can literally rewire the brain with new parts as the older parts wear out. How? Simple: Keep learning. Just as your body can pack on and condition new muscle your brain can rebuild used-up neurons.
How strong is the evidence for this? Strong enough that a $200 million industry devoted to brain-boosting software ? products like Brain Age MindFit and Lumosity that supposedly improve your memory function ? has sprung up out of nowhere. The jury is still out on whether these programs actually sharpen the noggin as much as they claim to. But frankly you don’t need a fancy video game. All “mental fitness” means is keeping your memory intact ? everything from phone numbers to how to throw a football. So what can you do to stay smart?”
Read more at SFGate
I went to a lectures on neurogenesis and neuroplasticity at the RSA last year and asked the question about age and the sad answer was that as you get older, particularly into middle age, the effect drops off sharply.
i dont think im going to pass my GCSE’s, im not very smart but im trying really hard. Is there any reverse Sociology i can do, to make my mind think ill pass. i really would like a great future.
Wasn’t research sponsered by the companies producing the software was it?
I’m on the right track then.. a constant learner here
This article ? leaves alot ? of question marks ? for me ??
Msg from Abeo: The question marks are in the sourced quoted copy. They must have copied some symbols from somewhere that aren’t supported.
This article ? leaves alot of question ? marks ? for me?
What’s with the over-use of question marks???
- I have no idea?!? is that a question or a statement??????? – Phillis
this is very inneresting, because i’ve also seen research which indicates that muscles do not lose strength as you age. and quite a few good examples of this do seem to exist.
“How strong is the evidence for this? Strong enough that a $200 million industry devoted to brain-boosting software ?”
so, the fact that there is an industry is meant to make be believe that the evidence is strong?
n that case, I play the card marked “Homeopathy”
Perhaps there is strong evidence, but the sentence you deliver does not indicate it.
The question marks are down to a cut and paste problem – they are showing that there is an unknown character, which from the context must be the “em dash” as the writer uses a lot of parenthesis – this sort of thing.
If in doubt, run it through notepad first or something.
Or you could grow some new neurons be memorising all the codes for the different non keyboard characters…
I had my first child a bit later in life. During the first 3 years, I stopped learning myself while I was teaching her the basics. When I realized that I had stopped learning new things, I set out to correct the problem.
Getting back into reading challenging material was great, but the thing that boosted my brain the most was learning another foreign language. I could almost feel the neurons making new connections.
I had an arguement about this 25 years ago in a pschology lesson.
I was told that the brain was totally incapable of making new connections if the neurons were damaged. When I pointed out that this was blatantly nonsense I was basically told to shut up.
Glad to finally be proved right.
I have had severe brain damage several times in my life & always managed to bounce back .
the assumption that people actually strive for intelligence…
bums me out to observe many of my friends and peers choosing to become comfortably numb =(
there’s something to be said fer being comfortably numb, whodat…besides, it keeps the liquor & drug industries profitable.
In response to Dave Straker’s comment, it does seem that we lose some brain plasticity as we get into our fifties and beyond, but it doesn’t go away entirely. I’ve known people in their late seventies who have still been able to improve their cognitive capacity. It takes more effort, though.
I would like all these scientific people to come back to me when they have managed to find a way for us to wire our neurons so we can move things with our minds, levitate and read people’s thoughts…oh and when they have found a brain capable of knowing how to build a hover board as from Back To The Furture.
There are two topics here, neurogenesis (neuron creation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurogenesis) and neuroplasticity (re-wiring of neurons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity)
Speed of processing brain training shows improved memory (IMPACT study http://bit.ly/Smith_IMPACT that used Posit Science’s Brain Fitness Program) and other real-world measures (http://bit.ly/JAMA_Paper) also improve just like physical fitness gets better with exercise.
Posit Science, where I am CEO and Dr. Merzenich (http://bit.ly/6QEwYf) is CSO, makes scientifically-validated and engaging software to help you think faster, focus better and remember more. Over 30 clinical studies from institutions like the Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins show a range of benefits. For more information and free exercises, please visit http://www.positscience.com